Glencore soars after cutting zinc production

Even after that, the company’s debt will be around $20 billion.

“It is more active today, and a lot of the shorts have had to cover on the back of the news”.

The Federal Reserve last month postponed a move to hike United States interest rates as it anxious about a global slowdown, concerns over the strong dollar and listless USA inflation, minutes from the meeting revealed Thursday. Soybeans hit a one-week high after the USA government lowered production estimates below analysts’ expectations.

The Swiss-based company said jobs would be lost. “Alcoa’s miss show that a few parts of corporate America are suffering”.

FTSE indices campaigned higher after gains on Wall St and in Asia overnight.

The 19-commodity Thomson Reuters/Core Commodity CRB Index (.TRJCRB), a global benchmark for commodities, was up 4.4 percent on the week, its best gain since 2012.

Analysts cited the minutes from the Fed’s September meeting as encouraging investors to get back into equities.

China’s economic downturn is at the heart of Glencore’s difficulties.

Surging metals offset a choppy oil market. The move comes after the gauge sank 15 percent in the third quarter, the biggest drop in four years, after China devalued its currency.

Standard & Poor’s 500 Index E-mini futures expiring in December rose 0.1 percent. Glencore shares leapt 12.3 percent to 135.5 pence in the afternoon. Indonesia’s rupiah, Russia’s ruble and Malaysia’s ringgit were the best performers, with gains of at least 6 percent against the dollar.

Copper prices jumped to a three-week high on Friday as fears of broader supply cuts by Glencore PLC triggered a buying spree in industrial metals. Global funds pumped a net $1.2 billion into shares in Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand. Japan’s Nikkei rose 1.6%. Shares in Indonesia and Malaysia rose in the week, with Russia’s Micex climbing 6 percent, the most in six months.

Volkswagen increased 3 percent and BMW gained 1.86 percent. “The fact that this sector is a major consumer of aluminium, copper and zinc should send a chill through those who, misguidedly, think that the commodity cycle is turning”. Peugeot advanced 2.88 percent and Renault added 1.71 percent. Combined with recent jobs and trade data, the minutes helped reinforce the view that the Fed will not raise rates later this month and may delay its first rate hike into next year. Nickel was up $390 at $10,565 – inventories declined 2,100 tonnes to 441,492 tonnes, the lowest since May.

In other individual stocks news, shares of scandal-hit carmaker Volkwagen (XETRA:VOW3-DE) closed around 3 percent higher on Friday after the automaker’s US chief executive told lawmakers that cheating on emissions with the use of software in diesel cars was not a corporate decision , but something that “individuals did” on Thursday.